This repository consolidates several reputable hosts
files, and merges them
into a unified hosts file with duplicates removed. A variety of tailored hosts files are provided.
- Last updated: November 30 2017.
- Here's the raw hosts file with base extensions containing 43,000 entries.
The Non GitHub mirror is the link to use for some hosts file managers like Hostsman for Windows that don't work with Github download links.
Host file recipe | Readme | Raw hosts | Unique domains | Non Github mirror |
---|---|---|---|---|
Unified hosts = (adware + malware) | Readme | link | 43,000 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews | Readme | link | 43,673 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling | Readme | link | 44,530 | link |
Unified hosts + porn | Readme | link | 50,864 | link |
Unified hosts + social | Readme | link | 43,233 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling | Readme | link | 45,203 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + porn | Readme | link | 51,537 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + social | Readme | link | 43,906 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + porn | Readme | link | 52,394 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + social | Readme | link | 44,763 | link |
Unified hosts + porn + social | Readme | link | 51,097 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + porn | Readme | link | 53,067 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + social | Readme | link | 45,436 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + porn + social | Readme | link | 51,770 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + porn + social | Readme | link | 52,627 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + porn + social | Readme | link | 53,300 | link |
Expectation: These unified hosts files should serve all devices, regardless of OS.
Updated hosts
files from the following locations are always unified and
included:
Host file source | Description | Home page | Raw hosts | Update frequency | License |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Steven Black's ad-hoc list | Additional sketch domains as I come across them. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT |
Malware Domain List | Malware Domain List is a non-commercial community project. | link | raw | weekly | 'can be used for free by anyone' |
add.Dead | Dead sites based on http://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html content. | link | raw | occasionally | GPLv3+ |
add.Spam | Spam sites based on http://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html content. | link | raw | occasionally | GPLv3+ |
Dan Pollock โ someonewhocares.org | How to make the internet not suck (as much). | link | raw | frequently | non-commercial with attribution |
MVPS hosts file | The purpose of this site is to provide the user with a high quality custom HOSTS file. | link | raw | monthly | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
yoyo.org | Blocking with ad server and tracking server hostnames. | link | raw | frequently | |
Mitchell Krog's - Badd Boyz Hosts | Sketchy domains and Bad Referrers from my Nginx and Apache Bad Bot and Spam Referrer Blockers | link | raw | weekly | 'non-commercial with attribution' |
tyzbit | Microsoft tracking domains. A fork of this repo providing additional data. | link | raw | rarely | |
UncheckyAds | Windows installers ads sources sites based on https://unchecky.com/ content. | link | raw | occasionally | |
add.2o7Net | 2o7Net tracking sites based on http://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html content. | link | raw | occasionally | GPLv3+ |
KADhosts | Fraud/adware/scam websites. | link | raw | frequently | GPLv3 |
AdAway | AdAway is an open source ad blocker for Android using the hosts file. | link | raw | occasionally | CC BY 3.0 |
SpotifyAds | Spotify ads sources sites based on https://github.com/Xeroday/Spotify-Ad-Blocker content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT |
add.Risk | Risk content sites based on http://www.hostsfile.org/hosts.html content. | link | raw | occasionally | GPLv3+ |
The unified hosts file is extensible. You manage extensions by curating the
extensions/
folder tree. See the fakenews
, social
, gambling
, and porn
extension
folders.
To run unit tests, in the top level directory, just run:
python testUpdateHostsFile.py
Note if you are using Python 2, you must first install the mock
library:
pip install mock
The updateHostsFile.py
script, which is Python 2.7 and Python 3-compatible,
will generate a unified hosts file based on the sources in the local data/
subfolder. The script will prompt you whether it should fetch updated
versions (from locations defined by the update.json
text file in each
source's folder). Otherwise, it will use the hosts
file that's already there.
python3 updateHostsFile.py [--auto] [--replace] [--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn] [--extensions ext1 ext2 ext3]
python updateHostsFile.py [--auto] [--replace] [--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn] [--extensions ext1 ext2 ext3]
--help
, or -h
: display help.
--auto
, or -a
: run the script without prompting. When --auto
is invoked,
- Hosts data sources, including extensions, are updated.
- No extensions are included by default. Use the
--extensions
or-e
flag to include any you want. - Your active hosts file is not replaced unless you include the
--replace
flag.
--backup
, or -b
: Make a backup of existing hosts file(s) as you generate
over them.
--extensions <ext1> <ext2> <ext3>
, or -e <ext1> <ext2> <ext3>
: the names
of subfolders below the extensions
folder containing additional
category-specific hosts files to include in the amalgamation. Example:
--extensions porn
or -e social porn
.
--flush-dns-cache
, or -f
: skip the prompt for flushing the DNS cache.
Only active when --replace
is also active.
--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
, or -i nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
: the IP address to use as the
target. Default is 0.0.0.0
.
--keepdomaincomments
, or -k
: false
(default) or true
, keep the comments
that appear on the same line as domains. The default is false
since some
router-based implementations can't handle comments in-line with hosts.
--skipstatichosts
, or -s
: false
(default) or true
,
--noupdate
, or -n
: skip fetching updates from hosts data sources.
--output <subfolder>
, or -o <subfolder>
: place the generated source file
in a subfolder. If the subfolder does not exist, it will be created.
--replace
, or -r
: trigger replacing your active hosts
--skipstatichosts
, or -s
: false
(default) or true
, omit the standard
section at the top, containing lines like 127.0.0.1 localhost
. This is
useful for configuring proximate DNS services on the local network.
Add one or more additional sources, each in a subfolder of the data/
folder, and specify the url
key in its update.json
file.
Add one or more optional extensions, which originate from subfolders of the
extensions/
folder. Again the url in update.json
controls where this
extension finds its updates.
Create an optional blacklist
file. The contents of this file (containing a
listing of additional domains in hosts
file format) are appended to the
unified hosts file during the update process. A sample blacklist
is
included, and may be modified as you desire.
- NOTE: The
blacklist
is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be overridden when yougit pull
this repo fromorigin
in the future.
If you have custom hosts records, place them in file myhosts
. The contents
of this file are prepended to the unified hosts file during the update
process.
The myhosts
file is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be
overridden when you git pull
this repo from origin
in the future.
The domains you list in the whitelist
file are excluded from the final hosts
file.
The whitelist
uses partial matching. Therefore if you whitelist
google-analytics.com
, that domain and all its subdomains won't be merged
into the final hosts file.
The whitelist
is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be
overridden when you git pull
this repo from origin
in the future.
A hosts file, named hosts
(with no file extension), is a plain-text file
used by all operating systems to map hostnames to IP addresses.
In most operating systems, the hosts
file is preferential to DNS
.
Therefore if a domain name is resolved by the hosts
file, the request never
leaves your computer.
Having a smart hosts
file goes a long way towards blocking malware, adware,
and other irritants.
For example, to nullify requests to some doubleclick.net servers, adding these lines to your hosts file will do it:
# block doubleClick's servers
0.0.0.0 ad.ae.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.ar.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.at.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.au.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.be.doubleclick.net
# etc...
Traditionally most host files use 127.0.0.1
, the loopback address, to establish an IP connection to the local machine.
We prefer to use 0.0.0.0
, which is defined as a non-routable meta-address used to designate an invalid, unknown,
or non applicable target.
Using 0.0.0.0
is empirically faster, possibly because there's no wait for a timeout resolution. It also does not
interfere with a web server that may be running on the local PC.
We tried that. Using 0
doesn't work universally.
To modify your current hosts
file, look for it in the following places and modify it with a text
editor.
Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Linux: /etc/hosts
folder.
Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
folder.
On Linux and Mac OS X, you can simply run the Python script, but on Windows, more work is required due to compatibility issues in implementing some of the functionality for Windows. It is preferable to run the batch file as follows:
updateHostsWindows.bat
This file MUST be run in command prompt with administrator privileges in the repository directory. In addition to updating the hosts file, it can also replace the existing hosts file, and reload the DNS cache. It goes without saying that in order for this to work, you must be connected to the internet.
To open a command prompt as administrator in the repository's directory, do the following:
Windows XP: Start -> Run -> cmd
Windows Vista, 7: Start Button -> type cmd
-> right-click Command Prompt ->
"Run as Administrator"
Windows 8: Start -> Swipe Up -> All Apps -> Windows System -> right-click Command Prompt -> "Run as Administrator"
Windows 10: Start Button -> type cmd
-> right-click Command Prompt ->
"Run as Administrator"
You can also refer to the "Third-Party Hosts Managers" section for further recommended solutions from third parties.
Your operating system will cache DNS lookups. You can either reboot or run the following commands to manually flush your DNS cache once the new hosts file is in place.
Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and run this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
If you want to use a huge hosts file by merging hphosts (NOT INCLUDED HERE) you need to DISABLE and STOP Dnscache service before you replace hosts file in Windows Systems. You have been warned. |
---|
Before flushing the DNS cache, open a command prompt with administrator privileges and run this command:
sc config "Dnscache" start= disabled
sc stop "Dnscache"
Open a Terminal and run with root privileges:
Debian/Ubuntu sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/nscd restart
Linux with systemd: sudo systemctl restart network.service
Fedora Linux: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
Arch Linux/Manjaro with Network Manager: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
Arch Linux/Manjaro with Wicd: sudo systemctl restart wicd.service
Others: Consult this wikipedia article.
Open a Terminal and run:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
The goals of this repo are to:
-
automatically combine high-quality lists of hosts,
-
provide easy extensions,
-
de-dupe the resultant combined list,
-
and keep the resultant file reasonably sized.
A high-quality source is defined here as one that is actively curated. A hosts source should be frequently updated by its maintainers with both additions and removals. The larger the hosts file, the higher the level of curation is expected.
For example, the (huge) hosts file from hosts-file.net is not included here because it is very large (780,000+ entries) and doesn't currently display a corresponding high level of curation activity.
It is expected that this unified hosts file will serve both desktop and mobile devices under a variety of operating systems.
- Unified Hosts AutoUpdate (for Windows): The Unified Hosts AutUpdate package is purpose-built for this unified hosts project as well as in active development by community members. It's sophisticated enough to allow any novice the ability to install and uninstall the blacklist of their choosing to their local hosts file and keep it automatically up to date, while also being minimal enough to be able to be easily placed in a shared network location and deployed across an organization via group policies. And since it is in active development by community members, your bug reports, feature requests, and other feedback are most welcome.
-
Block ads and malware via local BIND9 DNS server (for Debian, Raspbian & Ubuntu): Set up a local DNS server with a
/etc/bind/named.conf.blocked
file, sourced from here. -
Block ads, malware, and deploy parental controls via local DualServer DNS/DHCP server (for BSD, Windows & Linux): Set up a blacklist for everyone on your network using the power of the unified hosts reformatted for DualServer. And if you're on Windows, this project also maintains an update script to make updating DualServer's blacklist even easier.
-
Blocking ads and malwares with unbound โ Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.